More than 50 elderly individuals killed by hip substitute operations after NHS ignored warnings cement was unsafe, former chief healthcare officer finds

Sir Liam, who was chief medical officer from 1990 to 2010, explained advice that advised monitoring the cardiac wellness of sufferers before hip operations was getting ignored.

“The orthopaedic surgery community seems to have concluded that the benefits of cement outweigh the hazards,” he stated.

“The NHS needs to look at when it is genuinely needed to use cement and when an operation may possibly be successful without having making use of it. In somecountries they don’t use it at all, it varies a whole lot across the world but in Britain it has usually been regular process.

“We want to see this entire question about the use of cement opened up once more and further research and evaluation of the dangers.”

In 2009, the now defunct Nationwide Patient Safety Company raised considerations about the use of cement during partial hip replacements for fractured femurs, and issued advice to the NHS on how to minimise the risks.

It discovered that 26 individuals had died and 6 suffered extreme harm as a consequence of “Bone Cement Implantation Syndrome”.

The Medicines and Healthcare Goods Regulatory Agency also obtained reviews of deaths and advised surgeons they ought to reduce hazards through “patient evaluation and revised anaesthetic and surgical techniques”.

But most of the deaths occurred right after 2009, suggesting that the implementation of recommendations was “suboptimal” the staff concluded in an post in the on the internet journal BMJ Open.

A spokesman for NHS England stated the NHS was functioning with patient safety groups and the Royal colleges to tackle the dilemma.

More than 50 elderly individuals killed by hip substitute operations after NHS ignored warnings cement was unsafe, former chief healthcare officer finds

Use of cement in hip replacements questioned by researchers

Surgeon conducting hip substitute surgery. Photograph: Niall Mcdiarmid/Alamy

Experts have raised issues about the use of cement in partial hip replacements – saying it could carry a chance of a patient dying or their heart stopping.

Although these events are rare the issue even now warrants investigation, the researchers stated.

Their comments come right after an examination of the situations of acute patient deterioration linked with hip hemiarthroplasties with the use of cement to support hold the artificial hip joint in area.

A hip hemiarthroplasty is an operation used to replace the upper portion of the femur following a individual has fractured the neck of the femur.

Among 2005 and 2012 there had been 62 reviews of death or significant harm associated with the procedure in the NHS in England and Wales – one particular event for every two,900 operations carried out, they discovered.

This sudden deterioration is referred to as bone cement implantation syndrome (BCIS). In every of the instances studied it caused death, cardiac arrest, or peri-arrest – significant deterioration in the patient’s situation.

Of individuals 62 individuals, 41 of them died and the remainder had to be resuscitated from cardiac arrest or peri-arrest, the authors of the study said.

Most of the reviews describe “acute deterioration” within just a handful of minutes of the insertion of cement, with 80% of the deaths occurring on the operating table.

Considerations had been initial raised about the use of cement in 2009, the authors mentioned in the examine published in the journal BMJ Open.

The Nationwide Patient Security Agency raised the alarm about the use of cement in the operation and issued advice to the NHS on how to minimise the risks.

But 3 quarters of the instances studied happened after this date of this warning which “clearly demonstrates that the implementation of mitigation measures set out in the alert was suboptimal, or that their effectiveness is suboptimal, or both.” The researchers added: “Cement use in hip hemiarthroplasty for fractured neck of femur is associated with instances of perioperative death or severe harm steady with BCIS.

“There is a need to have for stronger proof that weighs the hazards and advantages of cement in hip hemiarthroplasty for fractured neck of femur.”

Use of cement in hip replacements questioned by researchers